Want to find out more about that Salvation Army fish farm you're paying a few million dollars for?Don't look at Ald. Shiller's website... you won't find anything there.
But there's an article about it in Mindful Metropolis magazine. That's where you'll read that Uptown can't support a farmer's market, so that's why aquaponics is such a good fit.
Uh-huh.
Read about the future of your TIF/Tax dollars here.
Typical political bullsh1t.
ReplyDeleteShe's well aware that even while the project may have some intriguing concepts to it, her piss-poor handling (ie - outright lying) of Wilson Yard exhausted what little trust she'd had, and due to such, she can't get support for this from within her ward (ie - we all know there are more productive ways to spend that $ when the city has a $500M deficit), so she's looking to sympathetic groups to give her support - which is easy to do .. when you don't have to pay for it!
I will give her credit, she is amazingly consistent when it comes to flipping the bird at her constituents.
Ie - when you visit her website, you'll find that she'd like to "Paint Uptown Red" for the census (that joke just writes itself), and .. oh, wait ... while the intersection of Lakeside and Clarendon (which has its own TIF btw) floods at the slightest mention of humidity, the block of Carmen from 1260 W to N Broadway will be part of a sewer repair project.
Hm ... 1200 block of W Carmen ... why does that sound so familiar?
Anyway, did she, or did she not, state during the WYTIF amendment meeting that she would update everyone on details as they develop?
She did.
I'd hope that the folks at Mindful Metropolis were simply ignorant to the long and sordid history of Helen Shiller before they decided to cast their lot with the likes of an abject liar such as her.
The way the article lays it out, it doesn't sound like a horrible project, but shouldn't the risk be taken by private investors instead of public funds in this economy?!?!? Shiller has diverted enough of the tax base. It's time to divert....her!
ReplyDeleteConsider the source...it's essentially a pr piece directed at "greenies". (And there's not a damn thing wrong with that.) It is not an analytic piece. It's an advocacy organization/publication for green technologies. Don't expect them to ask tough questions about cost effectiveness or return on investment.
ReplyDeleteI'm a "greenie" and very much appreciate the lack of eye-rolling and hash-smoking-hand-sign-making from the peanut gallery so far! :)
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the problem is not the project (which I find really neat), but the seemingly poor track record of transparency and implementation in the appropriation of public funds (which I find really frustrating).
Can you imagine if Helen had been more transparent and forthcoming with information? This project might have gotten more buy-in. But no, its politics as usual with her - secrecy, do what she wants kind of attitude that pisses everyone off.
ReplyDeleteThis might be a pretty cool project, although a bit far fetched, but I keep thinking, "what does she really have up her sleeve?"
The real goal it appears from looking at the structure is..... Fish farm on 1st and basement floors. The real goal is more Section 8 housing on the remaining 90% of the building. Section 8 = more voters for her.
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